


The Unscheduled Show

by TtotheCofA



Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Arthur has a bad time but don't worry, I'm a wuss who can never write perma-angst, Multi, Rated for safety, plus an OC ghost
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-29
Updated: 2019-03-29
Packaged: 2019-12-26 04:09:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18275492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TtotheCofA/pseuds/TtotheCofA
Summary: When stage magic goes wrong...





	The Unscheduled Show

**Author's Note:**

> Still moving over my old fics from Tumblr. Enjoy this four year old, written-at-3am treat!

When he was a kid, Arthur had loved to go to magic shows.  
  
He was always captivated by the flair and the showmanship; big red curtains, sequined outfits, magic words and the spontaneous appearance of rabbits almost never failed to brighten his mood. He’d even learned a few slight of hand and card tricks, himself, at the height of it all, and he’d been pretty good. 7 times out of 10, he always picked the right card.  
  
But magic was suddenly a lot more serious when the chains were around you, and the keys to the holding tank were nowhere in sight.  
  
Arthur decided then that he didn’t like magic shows anymore.

.......

The investigation had started off as normal as could be, for them; an e-mail had come in through their website from a struggling theater, claiming that their stage was haunted. The owners blamed the paranormal activity for the slow downturn of their business, and even attached testimonials from performers, employees and audience members who had experienced the activity.  
  
Again, it was the usual stuff; shadow figures, unexplained noises, uneasy feelings, people being pushed/poked/pinched/hit, etc. No-one had been seriously injured, but people had been hurt by this thing. There was no doubting that something was inhabiting the theater.  
  
Vivi had the van packed before Arthur and Lewis had even finished reading the e-mail.  
  
The location was a few days’ drive from the mansion, so Lewis drove for most of the way. Since he - as a ghost - no loner needed to sleep, Vivi and Arthur crashed in sleeping bags in the back, and they saved a few hundred bucks on motel rooms. They’d parked in a small lot off to the side of the theater and gone inside to meet the owners, and had then interviewed a few nervous employees before settling down in a local bed and breakfast to plan out their investigation.  
  
With permission from the owners, they set up a few cameras and recording devices after closing, and let them sit overnight. The cameras captured little more than easily dismissible light anomalies and flickering shadows, but the recording devices captured a muffled voice. Though the words weren’t clear enough to hear - even after Arthur put them through the wringer in an attempt to clear them up - they were easily discernible as a human voice, and not just the sounds of a settling building.  
  
They’d called up the theater owners, and planned a nighttime investigation almost immediately.  
  
Armed with flashlights, walkie talkies, herb bundles and EMF readers, the gang had locked themselves inside the theater as the sun set, and waited for the activity to start. They saw….nothing, at first. And heard nothing either. As a group, they searched from the balconies to the bathrooms, and then, as the clock drew near to midnight, they split up to try searching individually.  
  
And that’s when things started to go wrong.  
  
Vivi was the first to notice; she had just checked in with Lewis via their walkie talkies, and was having trouble raising Arthur. Annoyed, the bluenette assumed that the blond’s battery had died. He had a terrible habit of forgetting to charge them, so it wasn’t out of the question. Since her own search area was turning up absolutely nothing of interest, Vivi decided to head down to the stage, where Arthur had decided to search.  
  
To her surprise, as she came down the stairs to the main floor, she saw the magenta glow of Lewis at the far end of the hall…..and immediately, her nerves were on edge.  
  
Lewis’ hair was - for lack of a better term - glowing, and rippled like a campfire as he moved. Small orbs of spectral energy hovered about his head and shoulders, and that was a clear sign that something was amiss; that Lewis had sensed something supernatural in the area, and was unsettled by it. Vivi adjusted her grip on her flashlight and broke into a jog, waving to catch the attention of her ghostly lover.  
  
“Lewis, what’s going on?” She hissed in a stage whisper as she reached him. “What are you sensing?”  
  
“I’m not really sure, Vivi…” The pink specter admitted after a moment. “It’s negative, that’s for sure….angry, maybe. Sadness feels ‘heavier’.” He sighed in frustration, and his hair flared briefly. Mystery was a great teacher, but Lewis was still learning the finer points of ‘spirit-sensing’ (as Vivi had dubbed it). He could tell when something was there, but not very accurately, and most of the time, all he detected was a negative aura.  
  
“It’s definitely focused around the stage, though.” Lewis continued, glancing down briefly as Mystery padded up to join them from wherever he’d been investigating. “It’s a perfect fit with all the accounts from performers…” The ghost trailed off mid-sentence as he realized their party was one member short. “Wait, where’s Arthur?” Vivi bit her lip.  
  
“…I’m not sure, LewLew.” She admitted quietly. “He was going to investigate backstage, but I can’t raise him on the radio. I was coming down now to check on him.”  
  
“We might as well all go.” Lewis nodded, biting back the concern in his voice. He always worried about Arthur when they split up, but his luck had been holding good for weeks now. The blond had been gaining a confidence in their investigations that neither Lewis nor Vivi had seen in _y e a r s_ , and the ghost had been loathe to comment on the change, lest it unravel. “He probably just forgot to charge the battery again…”  
  
Their footsteps echoed eerily around the open seating space as the trio made their way down the center aisle. The theater was encased in darkness, but for the beams of their flashlights, and the dim glow of a few scattered security lights. They were just nearing the stage when the side lights abruptly flared on, and a voice started to laugh.  
  
“Welcome, one and all!” A tall, cloaked figure stepped out of the darkness beyond the lights, and bowed elegantly to his tiny audience as they stood stunned and blinking. “You’re just in time for the show!” The figure straightened up, but tilted the brim of his tall hat to shade his face. “Well….you’re a little late, actually. I’ve already selected a volunteer, so I hope you don’t mind simply sitting back and being amazed~”  
  
“Volunteer….?” Vivi felt a cold knot tie itself in her heart. Arthur was still missing….had this man - this ghost (she could hear the EMF detector shrieking from her bag, and she’d already calibrated it to ignore Lewis and Mystery) - done something to him? There was a flash of heat and light behind her, and she heard Lewis snarl.  
  
“What did you do with Arthur?” The specter demanded, his human appearance discarded for his more frightening, skeletal form. The ghost on stage merely smiled widely, and his laugh this time was disturbing. Unfazed by the younger spirit’s show of power, he tipped his hat back to reveal a skeletal face and burning red eyes.  
  
“Why, I’ve given him the honor of performing the greatest trick to ever grace this graceless stage!” The ghost insisted, stepping to one side and gesturing back towards the curtains with his cloak. The heavy velvet drapery obediently creaked, and slowly began to pull to the sides, revealing a tall, rectangular shape in the darkness behind them. “See for yourself…”  
  
The lights from the front of the stage couldn’t quite reach it, but glass walls managed to reflect some of the light, and what wasn’t reflected filtered through the water inside…revealing a dark shape drifting at the center. No, not drifting - trapped. The catwalk lights suddenly flashed on, and what they revealed caused Vivi’s heart to seize in fear. The rectangular shape was a water tank, and it was filled and sealed….and that dark shape inside was…  
  
Arthur.  
  
Heavy chains were wrapped around him from head to toe, binding his arms behind his back, and weighing him down to the bottom of the tank, where the chains were padlocked to the lower grating. A white bandana was tied around his nose and mouth, and a faint red glow filtered out from the cloth. Vivi barely spared this a second thought, because Arthur’s eyes were closed, and as far as she could tell, he wasn’t breathing.  
  
She heard Lewis scream in both fury and fear, and the sound broke her out of her trance. The ghost on stage laughed manically and vanished in a puff of smoke as the bluenette charged the stage, vaulting up over the edge from the orchestral pit with Mystery and then Lewis hot on her heels. Ignoring the faint mist the ghost left behind, Vivi ran straight to the tank and started banging on it. The glass was thick, and all her fists did was bounce.  
  
“Lewis, get him out!” Vivi shouted desperately, quickly losing the composure in her voice now that she faced the very real probability of their boyfriend drowning before her eyes. “Hurry! He’s gonna drown!” Lewis leaned one hand against the glass and drew back his own fist, ready to put all his strength behind a desperate punch, when the theater ghost laughed again.  
  
“Don’t take me for a fool, dear girl.” The ghost appeared again on the catwalks far above them, and looked down at the group over arms crossed. “There’s no trick of the volunteer dies before the audience even arrives.” He raised one hand, clasping a long, black and white wand. The same red glow that surrounded the bandana on Arthur surrounded the wand, and the ghost tilted his head egotistically.  
  
“But now that you’re here, it’s time to start the show…” He twirled the wand, and inside the tank, Arthur moved; straightened up and raised his chin, though his eyes were still closed. “In…” The ghost jerked the wand up, and Arthur’s chest expanded, as if taking a deep breath. Vivi cried out in fear, certain he would drown, but the blond did not thrash or struggle, or show any signs of pain. “And out…” The ghost jerked the wand down, and Arthur exhaled. A flurry of bubbles came from beneath the bandana as he sagged, and Mystery began to growl loudly.  
  
This was powerful magic; a powerful spirit…one that was out of their league.  
  
“In once more…” The ghost jerked his wand up, and as Vivi and Lewis watched in horror, Arthur ‘inhaled’ again. Up on the catwalk, the ghost narrowed red eyes in sadistic glee. “And on with the show~” In a puff of smoke, the ghost vanished, and the red glow faded from the bandana. Arthur’s eyes sprang open wide, and he immediately started thrashing, no longer held calm and quiet by the ghost’s power, and desperate for oxygen.  
  
Lewis frantically began pounding away at the glass, cracking it little by little with each blow. Water began to seep through the fractures first in a trickle, and then in small streams, but it wasn’t enough. Arthur’s struggles were becoming more and more lethargic, and the stream of bubbles from his mouth was beginning to thin out. Lewis’ hair flared in utter panic as he watched his love’s eyes start to roll back, but he floated backwards in blind obedience when he heard Vivi shout “MOVE” from somewhere behind him.  
  
There was a soft ‘pop’, and then a ‘crackle’, and then the powerful force wave of Vivi’s spell slammed into the already weakened glass and shattered it. The pressure of the water inside blasted the damaged glass out of its frame, flooding the stage and waterfalling down into the pit below. Arthur collapsed to the bottom of the tank with a rattle of chains and sagged against the intact sides, heaving and coughing on pure instinct.  
  
Lewis rushed inside and grabbed the blond, flames leaping from his hands to melt the still-locked chains. The fire liquified the rusty links, but did not harm the pale skin beneath, and as soon as the bonds had loosened enough, Lewis threw them off and pulled Arthur out of the tank. Vivi was by his side in an instant, reaching for the bandana and yanking it down around Arthur’s neck when her trembling fingers couldn’t untie the knot fast enough.  
  
Vivi and Lewis sank to their knees among the shattered glass and water, cradling their gasping, choking, semi-conscious lover between them. Mystery picked his way through the mess from stage left, whining…and he wagged his stub of a tail as Arthur’s eyes opened. He looked up at the blurs of blue and magenta above him, coughed out another mouthful of water, and smiled weakly.  
  
“Hey, guys…” He whimpered. Vivi muttered a curse under her breath and pulled the blond tight against her chest; she tangled her fingers into his dripping hair and pressed kiss after kiss after kiss to his cold face. Lewis curled around them, exuding warmth and protection and love, and Arthur made no protest. He sank into their protective embrace, and tried hard not to think about how close he had just come to death.  
  
As soon as Arthur felt ready to move, they were going to the ER to make absolutely certain he was alright; there was a popular lake just outside of town, so they could easily play the ‘stupid-kids-swimming-at-night-gone-wrong’ card. And they’d have to deal with that ghost….he was powerful and dangerous and not of the mind to be reasoned with. They couldn’t leave the theater at his mercy…  
  
But for now, the Mystery Skulls were just going to sit there, and thank god that Lewis was still the only ghost among them.

 


End file.
